


Loyalty

by TehRaincoat



Series: The Bantering Banshees [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Sokkla
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 14:52:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16834819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehRaincoat/pseuds/TehRaincoat
Summary: Sometimes, keeping their relationship a secret is hard, even for one of the ultimate secret keepers.





	Loyalty

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! :D

The girl on Sokka’s arm is pretty. Azula can see that much. The Fire Nation General looks away when she feels the strength of her brother’s gaze on her back and pretends, as she always does, that there is nothing between her and Sokka that’s of any consequence to her. And there isn’t. Not really. Definitely not.

She tips back her cup of tea and swallows thickly, rolling her lips inward. The chalk of her lipstick lingers on her tongue.

Zuko’s hand is warm at the small of her back when she least expects it.

Turning, earrings swinging noticeably in her earlobes with the motion while she looks up at her brother, a nonchalant question flickers over her features at the contact.

“What’s wrong?” Zuko’s voice is close to her ear, intimate in the public setting they’ve helped to host. 

She frowns, stomach twisting briefly.

“What do you mean?” Azula’s honey coloured eyes narrow.

Zuko raises his single eyebrow at her, but his expression remains regal, detached. (He’s learned from Mai over the years; not so quick to show his emotions. Not so ready to tell everyone his true feelings either).

“You threw that tea back like it was spirits.”

“It wasn’t very good tea.”

“Well, that’s hurtful.”

Azula laughs, smiling crookedly at her brother before she turns her attention back to the room.

“I was just admiring councilman Sokka’s date. Can’t a woman be jealous of another’s beauty on occasion?”

Zuko snorts.

“As your brother, I don’t really like to inflate your ego all that much,” he tells her, “but please believe me when I say you’re prettier than her.”

“Oh…such flattery.”

Zuko shrugs with a purse of his lips, unaffected. Azula can’t quite help but smile a little more genuinely at her brother, if only for a moment.

“Shouldn’t you be watching my niece, in case she tells someone important something embarrassing about you?”

“You and Mai have taught Izumi better than that,” he answers easily, retracting his hand to settle behind his back once again, at ease. “Besides, she’s never the one I worry about at events like these.” Zuko looks at her pointedly.

It’s Azula’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

“I never make enemies that I can’t contend with on my own.”

“That’s not really my worry.”

She rolls her eyes. “I never make enemies that you cannot contend with either.”

“Uuuh huh.”

Azula reaches up, planting a kiss on Zuko’s cheek before she draws away again. Her footsteps carry her slowly away from her brother, drawing her into the crowd at a leisurely pace. A few of the councilmen that sit in Republic City’s government nod to acknowledge her. 

These peasants should know better by now; they’re certainly not of equal ranking to her even with her royal titles stripped. They should be bowing. But they never learn, and Azula finds it an exhaustive enterprise to show them how much she cares. So she ignores them as well as she can, and remembers their names and faces. For later.

Unconsciously, the former princess follows Sokka’s path through the crowd. He’s always in her peripheries, the young water tribe woman on his arm a rosy-cheeked smile trailing at his side as he greets the friends and allies that he’s made in Republic City. The enemies too. She charms them all, though Sokka is charming enough on his own, in Azula’s estimation. 

Azula foolishly doesn’t think to take _herself_ out of the way of the couple’s path.

“General Azula.”

She turns at the sound of her name, away from a brief conversation with an old Earth Kingdom delegate who is asking too many personal questions.

“Please excuse me, Lord Jing.”

He waves a good natured hand at her and leaves her presence.

Azula’s smile doesn’t reach her eyes when she turns her full attention to Sokka and his dance partner.

“Councilman Sokka. I thought you were still in the Southern Water Tribe for some time. We had not expected you to be here for this event.”

“Well, plans changed. General this is Isi. Isi, this is General Azula of the Fire Nation. Or Lady Azula, if you prefer. She’s Fire Lord Zuko’s sister.”

“Oh, pleased to meet you,” the woman says. She bows, Azula notes. The former princess’ gaze remains unaffected. 

“A pleasure, I’m sure,” Azula answers finally. “Are you from the Southern Water Tribe as well?”

“The Northern Tribe, actually. I moved to the South with my sister just recently when she married. I haven’t been there all that long.”

“How exciting. One frozen wasteland to another,” Azula drawls.

“Azula.”

She only glances at Sokka.

Isi giggles, shrugging her shoulders with a sense of ease. “Well, it’s the truth.”

“Yes I guess one can’t say that you’re not brutally honest at all times,” Sokka agrees in a flat tone, his eyes hardening just slightly. Azula meets him gaze for gaze.

If Azula can credit the other woman for anything, it’s her ability to read a room. She looks between the two of them with her pleasant expression and sighs lightly.

“If the two of you will excuse me, I need to find the ladies’ room and then top off my drink. I’ll find you again,” Isi says. Sokka looks reluctant but nods, watching after Isi as she disappears into the crowd.

Azula turns and heads for the hallway outside of the ballroom. She can hear him on her heels. No one else seems to be taking notice of their passing. Just as well, she thinks as they go into the far dimmer hallway and she disappears them around a corner, turning in time to catch his mouth against hers.

The former princess of the Fire Nation cannot help the sigh that escapes her in relief, her arms roping about Sokka’s shoulders and neck. Her back meets the wall a moment later his long palm cupping the side of her face and deepening their embrace with fervour.

When they break for breath they’re both panting, flushed.

“Do you think they bought it?”

“I think Zuzu knows.”

“Well, your jealousy is pretty obvious. You really need to tone it down.”

“Jealousy?” Azula’s expression is one of disgust, and Sokka laughs. Her eyes narrow just a little further.

“You weren’t very nice to Isi.”

“I’m never nice to anyone.”

Sokka snorts, laughing as he brings his face close to hers once again, his teeth grazing the skin just below her ear. He tugs at her high collar with a finger, unhooking the fabric to reveal more flesh.

“It was your idea,” he reminds her in a murmur.

“I suppose sometimes my ideas aren’t very good…” Azula rolls her eyes, amused, breath hitching when Sokka presses into her again.

“I promise I won’t bring other girls to parties anymore,” he tells her then, tone light, teasing. He presses gentle kisses across her cheeks, over her lips again, and Azula can’t help but smile widely.

Katara’s voice echoes from down the hall, calling to Sokka. The two separate, disappointment flashing over their features before Sokka straightens out his shirt and smoothes down his hair. Grinning he reaches out, brushing some loose strands from Azula’s face as well, tucking them behind her ear.

The general reaches up, smirking, wiping at the smears of red that grace Sokka’s cheeks with the edge of her red sleeve. She turns him around quickly and gives him a shove, watching as the councilman first stumbles forward and then saunters casually around the corner and greets his sister in mock surprise.

Azula stays in the hall for some time after they’ve left, closing her eyes, her head rested against the wall. She sighs.


End file.
